Analysis / K

Saruhiko's hairstyle - Evil Costume Switch?

So Scepter 4 isn't evil, but Saruhiko's reaction to Misaki's reaction to his "betraying" HOMRA sort of makes him think of himself as a villain. Before he left HOMRA, he had a different, simpler hairstyle. After he's in Scepter 4, he wears his hair like his father did.

Is Fushimi a traitor? He needs to be in Scepter 4, but he also needs Misaki's forgiveness and approval.

So some people have been looking at the scene when they get back together through Shipping Goggles, taking the parts where they say things about their Kings (e.g. "Who's most important to you right now?") and saying they really mean each other, as if that helps the case for shipping them - but the reverse is true. They can understand each other again because of the way that they now understand their devotion to their Clans and their Kings - specifically, Saruhiko can understand and accept his own devotion because of how Misaki accepts him now.

Misaki doesn’t understand Scepter 4 until then. This was the issue to begin with – Scepter 4, the Blues, aren’t Misaki’s style at all, and we don’t even need to go into reasons for that it’s clear. But now that Misaki sees that Saru isn’t a bad guy just because he’s in the Blue-coats now, he starts to try to understand them. There’s the part in the Christmas Eve battle, when he and HOMRA are waiting to fight Jungle, when he starts going off about how Munakata doesn’t seem like a good leader because of how he’s not in the parts of the building where the fight is. He understands the strategy, but he says it’s dishonorable, and he wonders why “anyone” would want to follow him… and then he’s surprised when Kusanagi points out that Seri is there. Misaki gets flustered and says, “Oh, no, I didn’t mean you…” – he just meant Saruhiko. Also note his genuine confusion when Saruhiko goes off, before his (staged) fight with Reisi.

So how is Misaki finally able to realize Saruhiko’s feelings? Reisi tells him, plain and simple. And it’s because he can now see Saruhiko’s loyalty that Misaki can now forgive him. It's because he can then see Scepter 4 as they are - what they do, why they do it, why they're so uptight, etc. It's because they have a mission. That's when Misaki realizes that. When Misaki tells Saruhiko that he’s not a traitor, and that’s he’s actually “really cool”, that’s when Saruhiko can understand and accept it for himself.

And what makes him “really cool” to Misaki at that point is his loyalty. His loyalty to his Clan and his King, even if they’re not Misaki’s. He understands that Saru would do anything for Scepter 4, just like he would for HOMRA, and that’s what gets Saruhiko his approval. And when Misaki says it, that’s when Saruhiko realizes that about himself.

(mostly from a blog post on this...)

So is he a traitor? No, as Misaki says - the Blue King was his king all along.

---